Tag: simplicity

Spent the morning wandering through Yungaburra, a quaint little town on the Atherton Tablelands in North Queensland. Absolutely charming place – each street is lined with bouquets of flowers hanging from lamp posts, and shop fronts are decorated with quirky quotes and character.

Elderly ladies filled well worn cottages, getting together for tea and scones. Shop owners bustled around in checkered aprons, proud of their little slices of paradise.

Vibrant colours are everywhere to be seen in this beautiful little town, with a new delight waiting around each corner we turned. After a freshly brewed chai latte and home cooked sausage roll, I was content and happy.

I keep getting drawn to this image… there’s just something about the quiet wholeness to it. The genuine smile on his face, the simplicity of his surroundings. In the one breath he makes me joyful inside, but jealous too. Jealous of his emersion in nature, of his lifestyle free of materialistic possessions, and of his ‘take it or leave it’ attitude.

It’s difficult in today’s world to live a simple life, and I say that with gratitude for how lucky I am to have been raised in a safe, socially and economically sound environment. What I’m referring to though is the money-hungry, image-obsessed culture we are apart of, where life is a constant blur of advertisements, debts, shopping centres and selfies. This complete saturation makes it hard to live an authentic life – with a few clicks we can manipulate everything about ourselves and how others view us. We spend so long controlling everything that we can’t truly live in a moment or appreciate the simple things.

While I understand how useful technology is in various fields, I can’t help but feel that with it comes a detriment to our relationships and self-worth. We keep up with our friends online while losing that genuine connection and human interaction, we can easily cancel plans without being held accountable, and we can end relationships with a short message and no regret. Out of sight, out of mind as the saying goes. It just doesn’t feel right and humans were not built for such virtual existences. Even the realms of communities and villages have been destroyed, with most people having no idea what their neighbours names are. Forget borrowing milk from them, we can just get an Uber to deliver it to our door.

Of course, I appreciate how technology has greatly extended the fields of medicine and science, I just wish it didn’t come with all the other crap! (Excuse my language). I suppose the only thing we can do is focus on the things that matter – friends and loved ones, creative pursuits, health and wellbeing, and community service. To me these are the key elements to living an authentic and happy life, something that I am striving towards every day.